Purple Thunder
by Dark Pink Pterodactyl
Summary: Summary: AU: Piper just wanted to be normal again, to spend some more time with her friends and family. When she is encouraged to return to school in Reefside to finish her senior year things once again change for Piper.
1. Prologue: Prelude to Thunder

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 **Moonlight:**

 **Purple Thunder.**

 **Chapter 1: Prologue: Prelude to Thunder.**

 **Pai Zhuq Academy:**

 **2003:**

A pretty girl around the age of eighteen with long loosely curled brown hair, lightly tanned skin, and stormy gray eyes hidden behind closed eyelids sat cross-legged on a stone wall overlooking the large drop down from the Academy to the land below.

Anyone else would be shocked and question her sanity, especially if said person was afraid of heights, but for Piper this was an everyday activity. While she might appear to be napping to others she was in fact meditating. When she had first began at the Pai Zhuq Academy she had been a terrible student when it came to sitting still.

She picked up fighting quickly, and unlocked her animal spirit within a few months of training, but meditating and sitting still for longer than a few minutes was a challenge for the girl. Her father and brother had the same problem getting her to sit still. She'd gotten better at it, and it always helped when she was up high. That probably had something to do with her animal spirit being an Eagle.

"Hey Pipes, Master Mao wishes to see you," a girl with mocha skin, black hair, and light brown eyes said from behind her.

Her gray eyes snapped open and she sighed, before gracefully standing up on the rather narrow wall – Sarai, the black haired girl, never understood how Piper could stand being so close to the edge like that. If it were her she'd have given in to vertigo long before she could get comfortable enough to meditate.

"Thanks Sarai," Piper said, turning around and jumping down the few feet onto the stone ground of the plateau.

Sarai nodded and left, and she followed after her. There were plenty of steps from the plateau back to the main part of the Academy. She made it back quickly though and headed to where she knew she'd find Master Mao. Passing a bunch of cubs training as she did, sending them a small smile of encouragement as she passed.

She found found Master Mao in the chamber where a box was kept, a box no one was allowed to be around. Piper wasn't sure the exact reasons, but she'd always felt a dark presence from the box so she never bothered asking. She doubted she'd get a straight answer even if she did ask.

"Master Mao, you asked for me?" Piper asked with a polite bow.

Master Mao looked at his student and allowed a faint smile to cross his face. Piper Watanabe was a special case – her mother had been a Pai Zhuq master and yet her father was a ninja from the Wind Ninja Academy with an interesting past. Her parents and older brother died when she was six and the sensei of the Wind Ninja Academy was the first to step up to take her in, adopting her into the Watanabe family.

Piper had no other relatives that could take her (her mother's brother had been estranged from the family for years and Piper had only met him a few times before the accident) so she had few options, but it was agreed that she would attend the Pai Zhuq Academy when she was older instead of the Wind Ninja Academy. He knew Kanoi and his son had still taught Piper some things, she'd been ahead of most her fellow cubs when she began attending the Academy nearly a decade ago. While she had attention problems she had come a long way since then, and if it weren't for how far she'd come and his trust in her he'd not be asking her to do _this._

"I did. Piper you have been a wonderful student these past eight years. You remind me of your mother, she was as quick a learner as you are. She would be proud of you."

"Thank you, Master Mao, but is everything okay?" she asked, confused and concerned. The Master wouldn't have called her here to talk about that.

"Do you know about the Ninja Academies, all of them?" Master Mao asked.

"Yes. When the Academies were founded there was four – the Wind Ninja Academy, The Fire Ninja Academy, The Cosmic Ninja Academy, and the Thunder Ninja Academy. When Dai Shi was loose he destroyed the Fire Ninja and Cosmic Ninja. The Academies were left in ruins."

"Very good. The Ninja had agreed to help our fight, one of the only times all four Ninja Academies and Pai Zhuq worked together. During that time devices were made to help in the fight, but no one was able to harness them since the fight was already over by the time they were completed. These objects were called morphers. The Wind Morphers were kept safe by the Wind Ninja's, and the Thunder Morphers were kept by the Thunder Ninja. The Fire Ninja were gone and with them so was the Fire Morpher, destroyed in their last stand. The story is similar for the Cosmic Morphers. The Solar Morpher was destroyed with the ninja, but we were able to recover the Lunar Morpher and it was agreed that it would be safe guarded by the Pai Zhuq Academy."

"Morphers? Are you talking about Power Rangers, Master?" Piper asked credulously. She knew Power Rangers were real. She'd heard about them when they were active in Angel Grove, and she remembered the Countdown to Destruction clearly. She wasn't there, but she remembered the panic and her father talking about sending their older ninja out to help the Rangers.

Master Mao nodded, and pulled out a box which he opened. Inside was what she could only assume was a morpher. It was white and silver in coloring with black accents. The disk in the center of the morpher portrayed a wolf howling at the moon.

"I've had contact with the Academies. Both had been captured by Lothor except for a handful who have taken up the other morphers. Now it is time I choose someone to take up the power of light to join the Rangers in battle. After much thought I have chosen you, Piper, to become the new Lunar Ninja Ranger."

Piper's eyes widened. "Me! Oh wow, you must be crazy!" she exclaimed. "I'm not a Power Ranger, I mean I haven't even finished my training... I-I..."

"Are ready for this, I wouldn't have chosen you if I did not have faith in your abilities, Piper," Master Mao interrupted.

Piper swallowed hard and bit the inside of her cheek before reaching out to pick up the morpher. "Are you sure about this, Master?"

"I am. You will do your parents and master proud, Piper Shiba-Watanabe."

Piper smiled and strapped the morpher to her wrist. She would help the Rangers in their battle. She wouldn't disappoint her parents – adopted and biological – by failing in the task she'd been trusted with.

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Shane, Tori, and Dustin groaned as they struggled to their feet. These new Thunder Rangers were strong, and they all had the bruises to prove it. They hadn't been expecting to come across more Rangers, much less evil ones. How does one handle evil Power Rangers?

"It looks like this is the end, Rangers," the Crimson Ranger said, raising his weapon to bring down on the Rangers.

The staff was blocked though by a blade, and they were all surprised to see a Ranger standing on the other end of the ninja sword. The Ranger was female, the skirt attached to her Ranger suit and build gave this away. It was silver in color, and the animal depicted on her chest and forehead of her helmet was a howling wolf.

One of the biggest differences was that where the other Wind Ninja Rangers had gold and silver accents to their uniform, the silver was black on the Silver Ranger and the gold was replaced with white in most places – the gold on the helmet and ninja sword remained.

"Didn't anyone teach you to play nice with others?" the Silver Ranger asked, before kicked her leg out to impact the back of the Crimson Rangers knee. Not expecting the attack he went down on one knee and was thrown back across the ground by a strong kick to the chest.

Piper stood in front of the Wind Rangers in a defensive stance. Her ninja sword was back on her back, but she was just as tough without a weapon. Her stance spoke of experience.

"You've not heard the last of us, Rangers," The Navy Ranger said, helping his brother up and the two of them disappeared in ninja streaks from the quarry.

Piper sighed and relaxed, before turning to look at her new teammates – or supposed teammates. She wasn't sure she wanted to work with them, she'd never been the best at working with others. She found it hard to connect with a team in the past, but she did want to see her father and brother.

"Who are you?" Tori asked, now standing with the rest of the Rangers.

"I didn't know they made Rangers in Silver. Dude, you're rocking the outfit," Dustin said, and Piper couldn't help but chuckle. Shane was the only one to be more suspicious of the new Ranger, and it showed by his stance and facial expression.

"Power down," she muttered and her morph dispersed leaving her standing in her Pai Zhuq uniform.

"Huh, a Pai Zhuq student?" Tori questioned, not believing what she was seeing. The two Academies were on friendly terms but rarely saw one another. Ocean Bluff was a few hours from Blue Bay as well.

"My names Piper Watanabe, I was sent to help you with the fight against Lothor," Piper told them, her face never betraying her nerves. The Wind Rangers just exchanged surprised glances at the news. What does one say to a revelation like that?

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 **Several Months Later;**

 **Reefside, CA:**

 **January 2004:**

"Stupid father, stupid brother, stupid Master..." Piper grumbled her words in a low mutter as she moved around her new apartment in Reefside – a town a few hours from Blue Bay Harbor, easily within Ninja Streaking distance (meaning it would only take a few minutes to get from Reefside to the Wind Ninja Academy, even closer if she was going to the Thunder Ninja Academy). "...who needs to finish High School? I could easily get my GED and be done with it, but nooo... they think it's a great idea to graduate with kids around my own age!"

Piper looked over at her Egyptian Mau, which had pounced on her small round dinning table, and smiled. "What are you thinking, Isis?" she asked, but obviously not expecting her cat to talk back. Isis had been a birthday gift from her parents just before they died. Isis was getting older now, having been with her since she was six.

"Meow..." Piper sighed, petting Isis' head and grabbing her multi-colored messenger bag and slinging it over her shoulder.

"Figures, even the cats against me," she muttered, taking Isis' ' _meow'_ to mean _'suck it up, and go to school'_. She supposed it couldn't be that bad. There could be evil megalomaniacs trying to take over the world... again.

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 **AN: So, it's been a long time and I'll admit, I'm a little nervous about this one. I've been busy in recent days and I just didn't have the inspiration to write for Power Rangers I once did. I do plan on editing my other stories, both Neveah's series and Aria's, which is why in between working on the changes to those stories I've decided to work on a series I'd been thinking of for a while.**

 **I want to address the pairings. For this series I decided to pair my OC with Tommy. I love Kim/Tommy stories and even the occasional Kat/Tommy... but sometimes I like more variety. There are few Tommy/OC stories that I can find so I decided to write one. It'll be a rather slow build though. I don't know how often this will be updated, since I only have so much free time and working on editing my prior stories. I'll update when I can though.**


	2. Day Of The Dino Part I

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 **Moonlight:**

 **Purple Thunder.**

 **Chapter 2: Day of The Dino.**

Piper was nearly late by the time her silver car pulled into a parking space. She still didn't like the fact she'd been forced to go to High School, and not even a High School in Blue Bay Harbor – she didn't question her father's logic – but she could live with it. It was half a year. Sure, she'd be older than anyone in her class, but she wasn't really here to make friends or at least that's what she told herself.

Straightening out her messenger bag, Piper walked quickly to the entrance of the school. It took her longer to find the front office than she'd thought possible, and by the time she got her schedule from the secretary and and found her locker she was already late for her first class. She ended up running in the direction she was pretty sure the classroom was. Rounding a corner she only saw a glimpse of short spiky hair, and a woman in a blazer and skirt before she collided with a broad chest.

"Hey, are you alright?" She heard as she allowed herself to stand back up straight. She would have been knocked over if not for the one she'd ran into grabbing her before she did.

"Yeah I'm fine," Piper said, looking up. Getting a better look at the man she'd run into she was surprised, he wasn't a student by any means, but he just barely looked old enough to be a teacher. She felt fine admitting to herself that he was attractive. Her cheeks heated up as she apologized for running into him. "I'm sorry about running into you."

"It's alright."

"My, it seems finding my first truant wasn't that hard after all," Randall said, taking off her glasses as she spoke. "You're the new student I take It? You should know that here we do not tolerate tardiness."

"I'm sorry, I got lost..." Piper tried but she was cut off by the principal.

"Detention, today after school," Randall placed her glasses back on her face. "Don't be late."

Piper stared in shock as the woman walked off and she was left unsure of what had actually happened. "Whoa, someone needs to loosen up."

"She is a little... tightly wound," Tommy said. "By the way, I'm Dr. Tommy Oliver." He handed her books which he'd picked up back to her and she smiled.

"Thanks. I'm Piper Watanabe," she said, shaking his hand. She couldn't help but notice the look he gave her, as if realizing where he'd seen her before. "Long shot, but do you happen to know where I'll find first period science?"

"It just so happens I do," Tommy said. "i teach it."

Piper chuckled, unbelieving of her luck. She entered the classroom first and found a seat across from a girl writing in a notebook. She was wearing yellow and black predominately, and looked like she didn't care to be there or not. When Tommy entered the classroom it was still in an uproar. Kids jumping around to talk to their friends, and other throwing paper airplanes or paper balls.

A few were just sitting there staring into place, and he noticed the girl who'd run into him and Randall in the hall – Piper Watanabe, a name he knew from recording Ranger History for his video history of the power – sitting at a table with a dirty blonde girl who wore a lot of yellow.

Standing in front his desk he clapped his hands in order to catch their attention. "Guys! Settle down! Take your seats, please." It didn't take long before they listened, settling down at the lab tables. "I'm Dr. Oliver, and this is first period science. Before we start are there any questions?"

A girl near the front with blonde hair raised her hand high into the air. Tommy pointed at her to allow her to speak, and her grin grew.

"I'm Cassidy, Cassidy Cornell," she smiled while walking up to him. Everyone in the room sighed with annoyance, but Cassidy ignored this and continued to smile at the new teacher who she had to admit was rather handsome for a science teacher. "Dr. Oliver as you may know I'm the anchor and reporter for our school TV station. I'm sure our viewers are wondering; you don't really look old enough to be a teacher."

Her smile dropped suddenly when she turned around.

"Devin, are you getting this?" she snapped at a brown-haired boy holding a camera. Piper watched on with some surprise, mostly by Cassidy's appearance. She could have been Marah's twin, but with lighter hair. Even her personality was something alike her cousins, and it was rather jarring.

"Cassidy," Tommy began, now realizing his mistake. "I promise you I'm old enough. So let's put the camera away."

"You missed it!" she hissed as she and Devin returned to their seats, thankfully without an argument.

"For now let's talk about you guys, what you expect of yourselves in this class, because that's what's really important." He looked around the silent and non-responsive class until his eyes fell upon an empty stool. "Is uh, someone missing?"

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" _I wanna know, know where you're at._

 _I'm at the front, but you're still at the back._

Kira smiled briefly as she continued to sing, drawing a crowd from the other students.

 _Oh, can you tell me where, tell me where you're at?_

 _Freak you out. Freak you out._

 _Freak you out. Freak you o-out._

 _Freak you out. Freak you out._

 _Freak you out. Freak you o-out."_

"You're really good," Piper said, walking up to the picnic table Kira sat on.

She had her bag slung across her shoulder and long dark hair was in a tight braid. She wore a pair of light jeans (as close to silver as she could get), a black tank-top with a white crescent moon on the front over a thin long sleeved silver shirt, under a purple zipped up vest, and flat heeled silver over the knee boots.

While she wore make-up it was very light, lighter by far than Kira's own. Unlike Kira she also wore jewelry, but only four bracelets on her right wrist that could be mistaken as one in a nirvana theme. The other was a long necklace with multiple chains and three pendants at each layer – a Fleur de Lis, coin, and crystal cup.

"You're the new girl, Piper right?" Kira asked, remembering the girl from her first period and homeroom.

"Yeah, I'm Piper Watanabe."

"Watanabe... that Japanese right?" Kira asked, kind of confused. The girl had really dark brown hair and gray eyes, but she hardly looked Asian. She could be wrong though and she didn't want to come off offending.

"I get what you're asking. I'm adopted, but my birth father's surname was Shiba. Basically, generations ago my many times great-grandparents came from japan. After so many generations only the name really remained. You're not the first to ask."

"Oh..." Anything else Kira was going to say was cut off by Principle Randall's arrival.

"Ms. Ford, Ms. Watanabe, I'm afraid you need written permission to perform on school grounds. Let's go!" Randall barked.

"Are you aware that kids who play an instrument have a fifty percent higher chance of getting into college?" Kira inquired and Randall lowered her glasses to look at her and then Piper. It was clear she had a very low opinion on both girls.

"Well, you two are hardly college material now are you, Ms. Ford?" Randall smirked, tapping her clipboard as both girls mouth dropped at the obvious slur to their intelligence. "Now come with me. You'll both be serving detention with Mr. McKnight."

Kira groaned and slid off the table, Piper following after her. She wanted to argue, just as she'd wanted to that morning when Randall had given her detention but she just didn't see the point. It wasn't going to change Randall's mind, in fact it might just get her more detentions. As the three teens grumbled and followed Randall across the grounds the sprinklers burst into life, spraying them with water from all sides.

"My guitar!" Kira yelped, covering her instrument with her arms as best she could as she tried to get out of the water's range. Piper groaned, but simply pulled her messenger bag closer to her body and quickly made her way out of the sprinklers range. She didn't like the fact she was now wet, but it was just water. Her clothes and hair would dry.

"This is just great," Kira muttered, wiping at her guitar which thankfully didn't seem damaged.

Randall turned, and her narrowed gaze spotted a blue-clad teen of African-American descent walking towards the school with a blue umbrella in hand.

"Ethan James," she growled slowly, as if the name was something she would find on the bottom of her shoes. "I should've known." She stalked off after him, yelling for the other three to follow her which they did though not happily.

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"Sit!" Randall barked as they arrived near the office. The four of them – three of them looking like drowned cats – sat down on the bench outside her office.

"Principal Randall, I'd just like to mention the fact that there's no hard evidence liking me to that _unfortunate_ sprinkler incident," Ethan stated, trying to smile innocently. All three teens gave him a look, as if to say 'really dude?'.

"Save it for Judge Judy, Mr. James," Randall snapped before looking at each student wickedly. "The four of you have detention! For one week. Starting today. Now if there are no further questions-"

The four teens burst into a frenzied protest, Conner's about soccer, Kira's about band practice, and Ethan's about computer club. Piper was the only one not out right arguing, but that was simply because she had no excuse to. She only had her cat waiting for her at home, her father and brother were still in Blue Bay Harbor, and she planned to see them this weekend. She really had nothing better to do, so instead of argue with someone she knew wouldn't hear any of it she simply sighed and rolled her eyes.

"I didn't think so!" Randall yelled, cutting any argument they had off before storming into her office and slamming the door.

"Okay..." Kira began, her voice thick with anger and annoyance. "Somebody seriously needs a hug."

Piper snorted. "I personally thought she just needed a boyfriend."

"Eh, gross thought," Kira muttered.

"Dude," Conner started as he leaned forward and looked past the girls to stare at Ethan. "Computer Club?"

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"Dr. Oliver," Randall called as she joined him in the halls. "How was your first day?"

"Oh, the kids were great," Tommy answered. "I had no problems."

"Good, because you'll be seeing a lot more of them. In detention," she said, her voice lacking any care for his thoughts on the situation.

"Mind telling me what I did?" Tommy asked, raising a eyebrow. He was pretty sure he couldn't be given detention anymore, but maybe this was why some of his old teachers could be so cranky.

"No, you're in charge of it today," Randall clarified.

"Actually I have plans to go to a museum outside of town..."

Randall clapped her hands and with some of the first amounts of emotion he'd heard from her all day she said, "Perfect, bring the little monsters with you."

They rounded a corner to where Conner, Kira, Ethan and Piper were waiting. Tommy looked at them each, noticing a pattern with the colors they favored. The tallest was a boy in a lot of red and soccer gear. The shorter male was dark skinned and wore mainly shades of blue. There were two girls, one was taller and he recognized her as Piper Watanabe – she obviously had a favoring for silver (or light gray since it was easier to get a hold of than actual silver), black, and purple.

He knew from putting together his video diary that she was the oldest out of the three and the former Silver Lunar Ranger from Blue Bay Harbor's team. That was all true, she had been the Silver Ranger only a few months ago – if that – and Piper wasn't actually a teenager anymore with her nineteenth birthday having been a few weeks ago on October 31st.

The last girl lined up against the wall was shorter, petite, and had lighter dirty blonde hair and hazel-brown eyes. Like the boys she seemed to like a primary color a lot, yellow. Taken alone that could just be coincidence, but knowing what Tommy did he couldn't help but wonder if these were the future Dino Rangers. It was a brief thought.

"I'm sure the museum will be pure torture for them." she turned to four teens. "Well, enjoy your little outing."

She walked away, and Tommy turned to the four of them and removed his glasses and surveyed them before he sighed.

"You guys like museums?" he asked.

"That depends," Piper said, once against adjusting her bag over her shoulder. "There won't be any petrified ancient Asian warriors, will there?"

Tommy chuckled, shaking his head. "No, just dinosaurs..."

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"Whoa!" Ethan grinned like a little kid when Tommy's jeep pulled up to the museum."Check out the T-Rex!"

"Dude, it's cool T-Rex's are the Dinosaur," Conner said and Kira rolled her eyes from beside him. Despite knowing him since they were in kindergarten it still amazed her how superficial Conner could be at times.

"I prefer Pterodactyls myself," Kira muttered as they all clambered out of the jeep and they began walking to the entrance. They quickly came upon were a chain that a sign hung from - _Sorry, we're closed._

"Hm, Pterodactyls are cool but I've always had a soft spot for Velociraptor," Piper said, glancing around."Probably goes back to Jurassic Park."

"Great movie," Ethan muttered with a nod.

"That's weird," Tommy commented, looking up at the museum.

"Oh well, no museum for us," Conner said, faking his disappointment.

"Great, let's go home," Kira suggested.

"If we can't get in there's really not a point to staying," Piper said with a shrug. The younger three teenagers all turned but were stopped by Tommy.

"I'll tell you what, you guys have a look around the grounds," Tommy said. "If any of you guys find anything prehistoric, I'll cancel detention for the rest of the week. I'm gonna see if I can find someone who can tell us when they're opening up. Piper, why don't you stay here and help me out. We'll just count this as something prehistoric."

The teens nodded and walked off, though Conner looked as if he wanted to argue about Piper getting off easy, but Kira stepped on his foot and she and Ethan half-dragged him off.

"So what are we gonna do?" Piper asked, walking up beside Tommy. "Do you think anyone is inside, Dr. O?"

Tommy glanced at her and shook his head. "I don't know. Let's just look around, see if we can find a guard or some sort of notice."

"Sure."

They split up and went in different directions. Piper went around to the left side of the building, but there was clearly no one around. It was strange, she expected to see a guard somewhere but all she found were posters of exhibits open for tours.

"At least I know when they're open now," she muttered before turning and going back around to the front to find Tommy.

When she got there she was frozen speechless by the sight of a large T-Rex. It was the same T-Rex that Ethan had pointed out, but it was no longer a harmless statue. Instead it was moving and snarling like something out of the movies. When her eyes landed on Tommy she was dumbfounded – did he just kick a dinosaur?

"Piper, get in the jeep!" Tommy yelled, backing up to run to his jeep himself. If it were anyone else he would suggested they run in another direction, but he knew Piper could out run the dinosaur and get in the jeep without getting killed by passed the Tyrannosaurus. She seemed hesitant at first, but he noticed a silver-white streak just seconds before Piper was next to him, jumping into the passenger seat of the jeep.

"We'll talk about how you did that later," he said, turning on the engine and locking the door. He groaned, shaking his head as he pulled out. "Aw man, lock the door Tommy, good job. Like it's going to make a difference to a Tyrannosaurus Rex."

Piper snorted, alternating between looking ahead of her and behind her where the T-Rex was chasing after them. It was fast, and gaining on them. Salvation came in the form of an underpass – the jeep passed under it easily, but the T-Rex wasn't so lucky. Tommy pulled the jeep to a stop and the two of them got out in time to see the dinosaur laying on it's side, a large chunk taken out of it, leaving only sparking wires and gears behind.

"Any idea what that was? It's not exactly normal for a mechanical T-Rex to go evil on random people," Piper asked, trying to force down her nerves.

She'd just revealed ninja streaking – one of the only ninja skills she actually had being a Pai Zhuq student – to her science teacher. If she was lucky he'd forget about it, but she doubted she'd be that lucky. Her dad, Master Mao, and Cam were going to kill her.

"No idea. Come one, we need to find the others before they run into anything."

Piper nodded and the two of them go back into the jeep and drove off.

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"Hey, there they are," Piper said, touching his shoulder to get his attention and they jog off towards the teenagers. As they approached they could hear a piece of their conversation.

"…how much do I love detention?" Ethan laughed.

"Hey!" Tommy called out, and the three future Rangers stuffed the gems into their pockets or sleeves out of sight, looking as inconspicuous as possible. "You guys alright?"

"Well I—" Kira started, but Ethan interrupted.

"Yeah, couldn't be better," he grinned. Piper looked at them suspiciously. They all looked ruffled, and she noticed how they had thrust their hands in their pockets or behind their back when she and Tommy approached – as if to hide something. Whatever had happened it had obviously freaked them out.

"Nothing out of the ordinary happened?" Tommy inquired.

"Naw, just your routine hike in the woods," Ethan told him. "Lots of furry little creatures."

"And a few scaly ones," Kira muttered under her breath, and Tommy frowned at her in confusion. Like Piper he could tell they weren't telling them everything. He didn't push them to either, it was possible it was just him over thinking things, either way he'd know soon enough.

"So, did you and Piper get into the Dino exhibit?" Conner inquired, drawing Tommy's focus to him.

"Uh, still working the kinks out," he stated. "We better get you guys back. C'mon."

"Don't you guys think we should tell him?" Kira inquired as they dropped back a bit from their science teacher and Piper in order to talk.

Being a science teacher Kira thought he might actually know what had happened to them when they picked up the gems, but on the other hand he might not believe them or think them freaks.

She'd seen a few movies about what happened to people with powers – she didn't have to look further than X-men for that (not that she really knew much about comics, but her little brother was into that sort of thing). As for Piper, she'd just met the girl but they'd talked and Kira didn't have a lot of friends – her band mates not withstanding. Piper struck her as someone who would at least listen.

"I dunno about you, but I've got over a thousand sci-fi DVD's and you wanna know how many times the dude with the super powers ends up in some freaky government lab on a table with wires in his head?"

"Even _I_ know that," Conner stated as they stopped to talk in a little circle.

Tommy stopped walking and turned to look at them. "You guys coming?"

Giving each other one last agreeing glance they nodded and continued to follow Tommy and their other classmate.

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Returning to the school, Kira, Conner, and Ethan were the first out of the back. They said a rush goodbye and nearly ran to get their bags from their lockers and meet back up in the parking lot. Piper watched them go from the passenger side with confused curiosity.

"Something must have happened to them in that forest," Piper said.

"I was getting the same feeling," Tommy said with a sigh.

"I should go..."

Tommy placed a hand on her arm to stop her as she opened the door. "Wait, we need to talk about what happened at the museum."

Piper froze and looked back at him, she wasn't sure how to answer that. She was afraid he'd bring this up, and she just had no answer for him that didn't lead back to the Pai Zhuq or Wind Ninja Academy.

"It wasn't anything strange, Dr. O. I'm a fast runner, and it was mostly adrenaline," Piper told him, trying to make it sound convincing.

Unfortunately for her Tommy wasn't anyone, he was a former Power Ranger and wasn't so quick to believe her answer. Tommy chuckled, smiling in amusement at her excuse.

"Look, you don't have to lie. I already know, Piper, and I'll explain that when we're somewhere more private," he said. "This will sound strange any way I phrase it, but are you free today? We can talk at my house."

He was right, Piper thought, it did sound weird when one thought of the fact he was her science teacher. On the other hand she didn't give that much thought. Apparently he knew, and the only thing she could think of that he meant was her time as a Ranger and the Academy. She needed to know how he knew and make sure he wasn't going to tell anyone else.

"Alright. I'll take my car and follow you," she said and got out of the jeep. Tommy nodded and waited for her to return in her car. Pulling out Tommy took the lead and Piper followed behind him.

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"You live out here?" Piper asked once they got to his house, which was out in the middle of nowhere. Practically on the outskirts of town.

It was a rather impressive house, probably two or three stories in fact with a lot of land surrounded by forest. Perfect for those who liked peace and quiet. He would probably have a great view of the stars she realized enviously.

"Uh yeah," Tommy answered. "It was quiet and allowed me to do my work without the worry of neighbors."

Piper nodded, following him inside. The inside was just as impressive as the outside, but as far as décor went it was easy to tell a bachelor lived there. There was no signs of a female presence, for some reason Piper was relieved to see that. It was one of those things she'd have to think about later, right now it didn't matter.

"So spill, what did you mean earlier? About knowing, what do you know about me?" she asked once they came to what appeared to be the study.

"I know a bit. I know your a Pai Zhuq master and I know you grew up around ninja. Mostly I know you were the Silver Lunar Ranger for the Ninja Storm team."

Tommy felt bad for dropping that on her as bluntly as he had, but there really wasn't another way to tell someone you knew who they were, beyond as your student. He noticed how her stormy gray eyes which looked silver in the right light flickered from him to her surroundings. She obviously didn't know how to react to him knowing.

He didn't blame her, few people beyond Rangers knew each others identities. The exception being the Space Rangers and Lightspeed Rescue. Tommy was pretty sure Ernie had caught on, but as far as Tommy knew even the original teams parents didn't know – and if they did they kept it to themselves.

"I don't understand, how did you find this out? I've never met you before in my life!"

"Uh, that's a little harder to explain." Maybe that wasn't the best word, it was just difficult for him to admit his own history as a Ranger. His information actually came from the morphing grid itself, it was how he got the footage for the video diary he'd created on Ranger History. Andros had let him borrow Alpha in order to accomplish it, and through the footage and data the morphing grid kept it was easy to piece together some of every Rangers history.

"I have all day," Piper said, crossing her arms over her chest.

Tommy nodded and reached over to a small replica of a T-Rex Skeleton he had on a table. Lowering it's jaw a hidden door in the floor opened up revealing a staircase into a hidden chamber.

"Come on, it'll be easier to explain down there."

Piper watched Tommy's back disappear into the Dino command center with surprise. A knot of anticipation and speculation came together in her gut. This felt all too familiar, like she was back at ninja ops. Shaking her head she gathered her wits and headed into the lab.

Once inside she turned around in a complete circle to take everything in. Stone walls, tiled flooring, three-toed Dinosaur prints as lights, tables covered in machines and computers. It was somewhere Piper felt at home after the last year she'd spent as a Ranger.

Looking back at Tommy she asked, "Just who are you?"

"My name is Tommy Oliver, and I was a Power Ranger when I was a teenager. One of the original Rangers of Angel Grove," Tommy told her, taking a seat in a black leather computer chair. Turning to the computer he began typing and pulled up his video diary. "Watch this, it'll explain everything."

Piper took the free chair beside him as the video began to play. She watched with shock as events played out in front of her. From 1993's Power Rangers of Angel Grove to 2003's new team of Ninja Storm Rangers.

It was surreal seeing her friends introduction as Rangers, and then Blake and Hunter's arrival, her own arrival as the Silver Ranger, and then finally Cam's return from the past as the Green Samurai Ranger – a term she found more than amusing since technically that meant their were two Green Samurai Rangers in existence even if their powers were different.

The video ended at her teams defeat of Lothor, and she just sat back and ran a hand through the fringe left free of her braid.

"This is surreal. I knew there were Power Rangers before my team, but I hadn't realized there were so many teams. I guess I was really out of the loop while I was at the Academy."

"Some teams like to keep out of the public eye as much as they can," Tommy said. "Some never wanted the power to begin with."

Piper nodded. "I can sympathize, I guess. I didn't think Master Mao had chosen the right person for the Lunar morpher until after I joined the other Rangers. We only defeated Lothor a few months ago and yet it seems like it was longer."

"It's always like that at first," Tommy said, standing up. Piper twirled her chair around to watch him walk off, heading for a strange rock in the room which almost seemed to steam – like one would expect from dry ice. She raised a brow when he suddenly stopped less than a foot away from the thing.

"Aw man," he said, running a hand through his hair.

"What's wrong?" she asked.

She stood and walked over to join him, realizing the rock was more of a pedestal that was supposed to hold something. In this case it looked to be a gem stone, but there were four slots and only one gem left. The remaining gem was purple, almost like a rough amethyst. She was almost mesmerized by it at first, but quickly shook it away.

"There were three other gems there. There called Dino ge – wait Piper, don't!" Tommy's eyes widened, his warning too late to stop her from picking up the remaining gem.

At first he thought it wasn't going to bond with her, but he was proven wrong when it flashed bright deep purple. He'd reached out to stop her from taking it as well, and as his hand came around her own and the gem just as it flashed. Piper's head spun and she gasped before being thrown back onto her butt by an invisible force.

All in one fell swoop she felt her senses become super powered. She could smell the recent use of cleaning supplies in the house where she couldn't before. She could make out the steps Tommy took to reach her side even though he moved in such a way he didn't usually make that much sound. Opening her eyes she could see better, the detail of the rock in front of her wasn't microscopic but what it lacked didn't seem like much.

Colors seemed more vibrant, she could see more clearly in the distance of the room when before she used to need glasses to make out anything farther than three feet away from her, especially when reading. She had to stifle a gasp at the feel of Tommy's hand on her arm, even through her shirt. It wasn't unpleasant but her sense of touch was definitely heightened, time almost seemed to have slowed until she shook her head to clear it and allowed Tommy to help her back to her feet.

"What the hell was that?" she demanded.

"The Dino gem, it bonded to you," Tommy replied. "I think whatever just happened was them gems power activating. Do you feel any different?"

"Boy do I!" Piper exclaimed only to grimace at her own raised voice. Her hearing was definitely heightened. All her basic senses were, and for some reason her spin and back of her neck seemed to be tingling faintly. Come to think about it, Piper thought she heard faint growling in the distance. Did Tommy have a dog?

"it's like... like I can sense everything. To a point at least – my vision is better than ever, before I would need glasses to see clearly across a room. I actually wear contacts so I can drive safely and read small print. Everything just seems brighter, clearer – and my contacts are nearly unbearable." She blinked a few times before reaching up a removing them with the skill of someone who'd worn contacts for most of their life. "That's better. My hearing is ten times better also. My smell and my sense of touch... It's like I'm hyper aware."

Tommy had a thoughtful look on his face before he nodded. "Enhance senses. It's not exactly offensive but I didn't think all the gems would have offensive abilities. It might even lead into a sixth sense of sorts."

"Like what?" she asked. "Did you know that would happen, Dr. O?"

"Like you might be able to sense when danger is near you, or something similar," he explained. "I didn't know it would choose you, but I knew it was a possibility. That's why I tried to warn you against picking it up."

"Great," Piper said with a groan. "Does this mean what I think it means?"

Tommy was about to answer when Piper's head snapped up towards the staircase.

"Do you sense something?" he asked.

"More like I'm hearing something, I think a car is pulling up. It's less than a mile away... it's close in any case. Are you expecting anyone?" she asked and rubbed her temples. She felt a headache coming on, she'd have to learn to control this ability sooner rather than later.

Tommy frowned and shook his head. "No."

 **.**

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They chose to stay in the lab until they knew more. It could be someone lost and intent on turning around. Other than Hayley, Tommy didn't know anyone who would come all the way out to his house – his friends would have called before coming so he knew it wasn't one of them. Most were around the world doing their own thing anyway, or still in Angel Grove.

The wait and see plan seemed the most sensible, and with Piper's new gem power, which she was still learning to control, they'd know in advance if it was someone hostile or not. Piper listened carefully and was surprised when the car turned off after pulling up. Two people got out since she could hear two distinct footsteps and then voices. She could just make out what they said once they'd got to the porch.

"It's Ethan and Conner, I think." Piper shook her head.

She heard them standing directly above them. After a few seconds the staircase was revealed to them and they descended into the hidden basement. She and Tommy now stood out of sight and Piper allowed her senses to relax. She could feel her headache getting worse.

She could at least somewhat deactivate certain senses. They were still enhanced, but to the point she wasn't hearing the birds a mile away. She just knew she'd have to work on shutting the ability off completely, she'd never be able to handle it being active twenty-four seven where she lived.

"Dude, this looks like the place from earlier!" Ethan realized.

"Are you freaking out right now as well?" Conner inquired.

"Yeah, I'd have to say I am," Ethan nodded.

"If you're looking for extra credit, you're in the wrong place," Tommy told them, and the teens turned to find Dr. Oliver standing there looking none-too-pleased, but what was even stranger was the girl standing beside him; Piper.

Conner and Ethan stared back, wondering what they would tell them. At the moment they didn't even question why the new girl was at their science teacher house.

"Dr. O," Conner began. "We need to talk."

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 **AN: So far so good. Please forgive any mistakes, I'll be going back over it once I've woken up better and I'll fix the mistakes I didn't catch then. I hope to have the next chapter out soon, so we'll see how that goes. I have two links on my profile - one to a website I'm putting together for my stories. For graphics you should head over there and check it out. The other link is for my polyvore to see outfits Piper wears throughout the series.**


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